The True Nature Of A Zanpakutō [Rangiku, Ranma]

Tue May 14, 2024 3:53 pm

RANMA GEKIRETSU

Hōkamaru… you were one stubborn Zanpakutō, y’know?

At some point in Ranma’s life, after days upon days felt like turning into a broken record screaming at his Zanpakutō… maybe, he had to do some of that self-reflection stuff. Okay, for once, let’s quiet down and get his brain running… he needed to think deeply about his endeavors up until now.

He needed to remember… back when he confronted Hōkamaru for the first time. It was at the, uh, right after graduating from the Shin’o Academy, right? Or was it right before? Somewhere at that time… he felt his Asauchi’s calling. Yes, he was swinging it like this… overhead strike after overhead strike. Ranma simulated those same movements at the 8th’s barracks, and others… were shocked. He was quiet, focused… concentrated. Very unlike Ranma, mind you.

Something back then happened… he remembered that everybody turned to stone. All of Soul Society looked stony, desolate and… quiet. It was so quiet. So awfully quiet. So torturingly quiet. He could hear his own heartbeat. His own blood running through his veins. He could only hear himself, and all of himself.

And Hōkamaru… was there. Sitting by the edge of his sight, his back turned towards the young Shinigami. How long… how long did Ranma chase him? How many times did he almost grab Hōkamaru’s shoulder to try and ask… for his name…

I-I was so pissed off and scatter-brained… fuck, I might still be – anyway… why’d you keep running away from me, Hōkamaru?

… Why was his Shikai out? Ranma forgot that he’d uttered its name, causing his Zanpakutō to reshape and flicker in a wave-like fashion. This… this was proof that Hōkamaru was there. Deep inside, waiting for something from Ranma. Expecting something from Ranma. He just needed to know what.

…

At this point, some other Squad members would notify their Vice-Captain that Ranma was found in the middle of the training ground hugging his Zanpakutō again, brooding and mumbling something in silence. Since it was far from the first time, it actually didn’t bother anyone… but people here had each other’s backs, and Ranma looked like he was in some sort of trouble. Best Ranny checked up on him again.

POST | CUSHIONS

Wed May 15, 2024 3:21 pm

Rangiku would sigh as she heard the news about Ranma. She'd stand up from her chair and make her way out of the office. Feeling pretty good they came to her and not to Noharu, because Noharu probably would have just bullied him until he went back to his bed. As she made her way into the training ground she'd spot the shinigami as she would give a warm smile.

"Heya, Ranma. you okay?"

As she would walk over until she was standing close but not too close to him. She didn't want to invade his personal space, and she wondered what was wrong with him. Kinda hard to believe this was the same guy who came to her office so fired up about a promotion

"Girl troubles?"

Wed May 15, 2024 3:45 pm

RANMA GEKIRETSU

Ranma heard footsteps getting closer, wondering who dared enter his domain of solitude and sadne- oh, it was Ranny!

“Heya, Ranma. you okay?”

“Mhnhnghhhmhnhggghhhmhngghhhh…”

“Girl troubles?”

“Mhnhnghhhmhnhggghhhmhngghnghhhmhnhggghhhmhngghhhh…”

He sounded like a complaining cat. Turning around and rolling closer to Ranny, he’d be able to face her even from the ground and look up at her, still clinging to his sealed Zanpakutō. “Ranny, ya got a good relationship with ya Zanpakutō, right? How’d ya get to know em? Are they quiet, too? Ignoring you, at times? How’d you get your Shikai? Did ya lose a little bit of your mind, too? It feels like something’s slipping. It’s really scary…”

His entire body was shivering. Hōkamaru had some sort of message, some sort of… lesson to teach Ranma. So why did he have to be so quiet? The last thing Ranma wanted… was to find himself in that silent world again. Couldn’t Hōkamaru be more considerate, like c’mon?

“Hōkamaru’s my partner, but… he never talks to me. I don’t even know what to do, anymore…”

POST | CUSHIONS

Sat May 18, 2024 9:14 am

Rangiku would rub her chin at his predicament. Zanpaktou could be annoying feisty beings, and there was a multitude of reasons his sword could be mad at him. Haineko in her early years would often get mad at her and they would bicker but she never outright refused to speak. Now snarky sarcastic comments? Absolutely..

"Actually I don't think im the most qualified to help with your issue. Hanieko can be feisty and sarcastic but after I learned her name she never really refused to speak."

As she would look at his sword for a moment. She was a little perplexed by the idea, but she'd shrug it off as she'd just take a shot in the dark to try to help him. Maybe his sword doesn't think he's ready yet? He can act pretty childish at times.

"Maybe your sword gave you the wrong name? Do you have the same breakdowns when you tried talking to it?"

Sat May 18, 2024 1:27 pm

RANMA GEKIRETSU

Remember when he was able to see her face from down here? Sometimes, he couldn’t. Figure out.

Back to the topic – fuck. Ranny pretty much outed herself to be not the best source of inspiration to tackle this specific sort of issue. Her Haineko never refused to speak, even though she also had bickered with her Zanpakutō spirit. At the very least, if he knew what Hōkamaru was thinking about… that’d be a start. There had to be some sort of underlying message in all of this – his current theory was that Hōkamaru expected more of him and was, maybe, just fucking around with him out of some sort of primeval boredom.

… Oh, how broken his heart would be if Hōkamaru wasn’t even the right name. The possibility that his Zanpakutō spirit was fucking with him to that degree terrified the young Shinigami, causing a tremor to travel through his entire body! “O-Oh no… thinking back to it, m-maybe Hōkamaru just gave me that name to… get rid of me or s-something! What if he was just tired of me chasing him around back in his World?! Oh shit ***** no!”

… From another perspective…

Hōkamaru’s Perspective:

… Back to Ranma’s perspective. “Wait, hold on, hold on… l-let’s- lemme think about it…” he begged Ranny before holding his head still with both hands, “… Mnnngh… Hōkamaru never talks to me, that’s right. Never said a word other than his name to me… but… every time I wield him… every time I cast Shikai… it feels different. Like, I can just… kinda tell that Hōkamaru’s in there, listening to me. It doesn’t feel like he’s bending me over at all, it feels… like when we sparred, yeah! Did you think that my Shikai was acting inadequate? Weaker than usual?”

POST | CUSHIONS

Mon May 20, 2024 4:59 pm

Rangiku would try to think about it. Having only seen the shikai once it was almost impossible for her to tell. She isn't sure how many times he's used shikai or if he's using it correctly either. It could've been a multitude of different reasons for Rangiku to not be entirely sure what the other shinigami was talking about. She was having issues trying to understand what reason a zanpaktou had to lie to their user.

"Well, I didn't exactly notice anything particularly weak about yours. you have to remember even when I'm holding back there's still a pretty wide gap between us."

She would try to explain logically. Even if he did get stronger while he was in shikai it wasn't enough to make up the difference between them. Now if he were to get a bankai or something it may be a little more noticeable. She wasn't exactly sure what it could be, but she was allowing her mind to try to form a hypothesis.

"So, maybe the problem is something that you're actively doing that pisses off your spirit? Or maybe it feels like you can use some of its power, but you can't handle the full thing yet? Maybe you should try to have more open communication with it?"

Tue May 21, 2024 11:00 am

RANMA GEKIRETSU

Bruh.

Of course, why didn’t he think about that?! Ranny was leagues above him in skill, Spiritual Pressure, experience and size overall! She wouldn’t be able to discern any difference in his skill, not with the slow and steady race he was having.

“Stupid, wide gap I’m desperately trying to fill…” Ranma damned his utter fate of not being good enough, fuck that mindset – if Armina hadn’t scared him shitless back then, he wouldn’t have given a fraction of a fuck about it, but now- and Erica, too, she was such a strong motivation- and Hinamori-sensei’s promise- and Morikawa-sensei’s worry for his safety-

Man, this was rad. He even immediately began doing pushups as she said so, continuing to speculate if his Zanpakutō had a problem… with him or something else. Communication was the key, holy fuck- as if he hadn’t been struggling with that for almost a decade?!!?!?!?!?

“I- wha- I can’t fucking TALK to the guy- h-he- he told me his name, and that was IT!” Ranma groaned, rolling across the floor in what could easily be mistaken for a seizure, “I just… fuck, how do I get to talk to him, again? Do I go back into that weird, uh, Inner World again? How’d I even do that the first time? Wait, what am I on about, I don’t wanna play hide-and-seek again! How long did it take me to find him first time?!”

Finally, his rolling and panicking came to a halt. Ranma breathed in deeply and rested on his elbow, looking far more relaxed even as he still kept to the ground. Ranny’s face, as always was a little difficult to see behind that round wall of cushions, but it was a loss he was willing to pay. “I just… feel left out… I-I don’t even care about Bankai anymore – I just wanna talk to him… aren’t we supposed to be good friends, me and Hōkamaru? Like, aren’t we… one and the same, but like, connected and shit? It’s like an old friend’s angry at me or something… shit’s not very fun…”

Rolling up on his back, Ranma gaze straight up into the sky above, his arms and legs lost of all strength. “Hōkamaru… you gave me such an awesome Shikai. But fucker doesn’t like words…”

…

…

“… Maybe I should just leave him be.” For now, that was all Ranma came to conclude. “…”

…

…

“Wanna help me practice some Zanjutsu?”

POST | CUSHIONS

Thu May 23, 2024 9:19 am

"I think what you need to take time learning how to do is meditating. It's how you can go back into your inner world to try to open diologue with your zanpakto."

As she would remember her time before she unlocked her shikai. It has been a long time since she was in the shoes of the shinigami in front of her. She had remembered struggling a bit with unlocking her shikai, but she didn't have the experience of her zan lying to her.

"I'm not sure if I can do much to help you out. I can try to teach you some meditation techniques, but ultimately it will be your own journey. "

She would speak honestly with the younger shinigami. She didn't want to get his hope up in thinking that she would have all of the answers. She didn't want to make it seem like she did so she was going to be up front from the start. There are quite a few people that may be of better assistance to this like their own captain.

"Captain Rose is also a very good source of information by the way. OR even Noharu, but she would be a little more uh. rude to you than me or Captain Rose would be.

Sat May 25, 2024 11:46 am

RANMA GEKIRETSU

Medidating… hmh, so if he tried that, he’d be able to get back to his Inner World? It was an opening to return to a very annoying part of his life, though. After all, Hōkamaru liked playing hide-and-seek, but hated being found.

When Ranny mentioned that Captain Rose would be a better member to ask for advice – or even Noharu – Ranma had a visible vein grow on his forehead. It was too obvious, go back to his Inner World and talk. Overcome his fear of wasting his time… his precious time that he could spend playing, making up new Zanjutsus, eating, drinking-

Let’s go back and risk playing hide-and-seek for a week again, huh? What a waste of- but… hngggg-

“Okay, okay, I get it! I get it, already! I’ll- I’ll go back and enter his place, again… seriously, I know how to do that, at least…” he groaned like an angsty teenager, as if he was being patronized by his uncle and aunt all over again, “I’m not some helpless goon… I just gotta meditate… easy…”

Breathe… gather your legs. Place your Zanpakutō on your lap. Cross your legs and focus. Ease your muscles, ease your nerves – holy shit, Ranma had a lot of nerves, how was he functioning? Seriously… such a helpless Shinigami.

But once he actually began relaxing, it was as if his entire exterior changed. He looked idyllic, almost too good at actually meditating. They’d all learned stuff like this from the Shin’o Academy, so he wasn’t kidding when he said he knew what he did.

…

Ranma didn’t respond for about 2 minutes solid. Then, he opened his eyes again and glared back at Ranny, whether she decided to wait for him or sat down herself or went to get a cup of coffee or anything else. “I… didn’t talk to him, but… Ranny, I’m not actually able to hurt you, right? ‘Cause I got this sick new Zanjutsu in mind that I’d like to try… like, I mean, shit- that was ingenious of him! How didn’t I think about that myself?!”

Ranma, unlike 2 minutes ago, had fire in his eyes. He looked invigorated, revitalized, and he didn’t even get to talk to his Zanpakutō… but something good happened. That was clear. "Hōkamaru's a genius!"

POST | DICK CUSHIONS

Sun May 26, 2024 5:48 pm

Rangiku would smile as she arched hum meditating. She would take the time to take a seat and have a break. She didn't mind helping out shinigami who came to her asking for help. Again though she doesn't like to waste their time if it's something that she can't really help with. She would wait for the man to re open his eyes. Sitting criss cross she would also meditate but unlike the shinigami in front of her she wouldn't enter her inner world. She had no reason to pester Haineko right now anyway.

As she would hear him much sooner than she thought she would. She'd sigh as she would open her eyes. He hadn't even given it much time before deciding to ask her to move onto something else. She was sure that he was able to hurt her, but she wasn't entirely sure. She wouldn't want it to hurt her, but it's hard to tell on these things sometimes.

"Alright, so I think that you can hurt me. I just have an advantage in most spirit based things. there's nothing wrong with that by the way. If you want to try something new that's fine with me, but you really didn't meditate for very long."

The True Nature Of A Zanpakutō [Rangiku, Ranma]

The True Nature Of A Zanpakutō [Rangiku, Ranma]

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Re: The True Nature Of A Zanpakutō [Rangiku, Ranma]

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Re: The True Nature Of A Zanpakutō [Rangiku, Ranma]

Re: The True Nature Of A Zanpakutō [Rangiku, Ranma]